During my last year of seminary, I was working as a ministerial intern at a historic, sophisticated mainline church. The church had its main service at 10am, with a “coffee break” at 11am and then there were three different educational opportunities offered to the congregation.
The coffee break included coffee, some sort of sweet breadstuffs, and juice served in a punchbowl. Early on in my internship, I would scoot to the reception hall right after services (if I wasn’t serving at the altar that day) and get ready to pour punch into cups for the congregation. I enjoyed doing this, as it gave me a chance to speak with people individually.
After a few weeks of this, I received a talking-to from my supervisor. He informed me that it was inappropriate for me, a seminary student and aspiring minister, to be pouring punch for the congregation. Especially since I was a woman, as my gender handicap already made it difficult for to cultivate a “professional image”. My seminary mentor, incidentally, agreed with my supervisor’s advice.
I wonder what they would have done if I had tried washing the congregation’s feet?
